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As a father of three, what scared me was the core theme of the book: Would I really do anything to save my child?

It’s very easy to respond, “Of course. A parent would do anything to protect his children.” But put yourself in Tom Booker’s shoes.

Texting while driving, Tom causes an accident on Memorial Bridge with a minivan containing five innocents, including his own daughter, Janie. When he regains consciousness, time’s frozen. He sees the minivan holding the children tipped up on two wheels, gasoline running from the gas tank toward frozen flames licking out from under the hood. The van’s about to roll over the bridge into the Potomac River and explode in a ball of flame.

Stephen King’s IT is the bridesmaid of King’s novels. On every list ranking King’s novels, IT always comes in as number 2 or 3 — never number 1. To me it’s King’s best novel.

Quick synopsis: It’s 1958 and something evil is preying on the children of Derry, Maine. A group of seven kids, all at the bottom of the social pecking order, band together and confront the monster, Pennywise the clown. It’s an entity that uses the fears and phobias of its favorite prey, young children, to terrorize and destroy them. The Losers Club defeats Pennywise, but the kids vow to go back to Derry and finish the job if the monster ever returns. In 1985 – it does.

Everyday decisions made throughout our lives lead to unknown paths. This we know. It’s these decisions that mold our present standing, and our futures. But it’s only human to reflect on missed opportunities, which, to say the least, can be frustrating,

What if there was a decision in your past that you could change? What if life gave you a mulligan? How much different would your life be? Perhaps your life wouldn’t change that much – that’s what you might tell yourself. But if you’re honest, you might admit that your life really could have been that much more enriched and complete by seizing an opportunity, rather than saying, “Nah, I’ll pass.”

It’s not often that the biggest story for two weeks and counting also doubles as a News of the Weird piece, but that’s what is happening with the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

It’s a true, real-life mystery. What happened to a 250-ton Boeing 777 and, more importantly, its 239 souls? Of course, it has all the trappings of a mystery, challenging what we know about the connectivity of our hailed technology. No apparent radar blips; no emails, texts or posts; and not even any debris to speak of have everyone from experts on the news to your coworker or neighbor offering their own ideas.

Hey Grumpy Cat, maybe you shouldn’t feel so down. Consider the plans 16th-Century military leaders had in mind for your species (which is also proof that our online fixation on cats is nothing new): illustrated manuscripts from that time have recently been digitalized showing a strategy of what looks to be rockets or even jetpacks strapped to cats.

Yes, this was a serious idea found in pre-Renaissance books once owned by nobility. Scholar in residence at the University of Pennsylvania Mitch Frass, who has been making these documents known via social media, translates text from the original German:

Most amazing natural phenomena like Niagara Falls, the aurora borealis or a beautiful sunset are awe-inspiring, but explainable. The truly stunning phenomena can’t fully be explained. Take the common Starling.

The Starling is small—sized somewhere between a sparrow and a Robin. They weigh less than 3 ounces, have an eight inch wingspan, and are plentiful in North America as well as the British Isles. Viewed singly, the Starling is hardly what one would describe as beautiful. But when seen in conjunction with thousands and thousands of fellow Starlings, this bird is a true wonder to behold.

Pizza has recently edged out chocolate as America’s favorite food. No real surprise given pizza’s place in the fabric of our culture. John Stewart does battle with Chicago over whether New York’s pizza is best. And New York mayor Bill DiBlasio has received more criticism for eating pizza with a fork than for delays in snow removal. Most all of us maintain a fierce loyalty to our favorite pizza, a devotion that can last for a lifetime and survive long after we’ve departed the neighborhood. (For the record, the best pizza in the world comes from Campiti’s on Potomac Avenue in Dormont, Pa.)

It’s called the John Lawson House, located near the New Hamburg train station in New York, and it’s impressive for a few reasons.

First, it’s a really old house, built in 1845. Second – and here’s the “Man Bites Dog” angle – several life-sized female mannequins can be found on the front porch, in different positions and wearing different clothes, each day. No has ever been spotted arranging the figures; they seem to retire in the house without notice at the Main Street Historic District, in which the house is one of six properties.

A crude, but nevertheless common expletive hurled at the object of one’s anger suggests that the affronter go [have sex with] himself. Fortunately (or, depending on one’s point of view, unfortunately,) having sex with one’s self is anatomically challenging—unless you’re a rock.

Pyura chilensis, otherwise known as the Blood Rock, lives in the waters along the coasts of Chile and Peru, and reproduce by tossing a cloud of sperm and eggs into the water and hoping they knock together. (Thus, the egg would be “knocked up”—sorry.)

The 1986 drama, “The Color of Money,” with Paul Newman and Tom Cruise (and directed by Martin Scorsese, based on a novel by Walter Tevis, who I mentioned in a previous blog) has a line in it that I’ve always remembered.